Steinberg Cubase LE Operation Manual

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 371
• Use Line mode for creating linear velocity ramps.
Click where you want the ramp to start and drag the cursor to where you want the 
ramp to end. When you release the mouse button, the velocity values are aligned with 
the line between the two points.
• Parabola mode works in the same way, but aligns the velocity values with a 
Parabola curve instead.
Use this for smooth, “natural” velocity fades, etc.
• The remaining three modes align the velocity values with continuous curve 
shapes (see below).
Note:
•If there is more than one note on the same position (e.g. a chord), their 
velocity bars will overlap in the controller lane. 
If none of the notes are selected, all notes at the same position will be set to the same 
velocity value when you draw. To edit the velocity of only one of the notes at the same 
position, first select the note in the note display. Now, editing will only affect the velocity 
of the selected note.
You can also adjust the velocity of a single note by selecting it and 
changing its velocity value on the info line. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 372 The MIDI Editors
Adding and editing events in the controller display
When any option other than “Velocity” is selected for viewing in a con-
troller lane, you can create new events or edit the values of existing 
events using the Pencil tool in its various modes:
• Clicking with the Pencil tool in Draw mode or Paint mode creates a new event.
• To modify the value of an event (without creating a new one), press [Alt]/[Op-
tion] and use the Pencil tool.
Note that you can click and drag to change or add multiple events, draw controller 
curves, etc. You can press or release [Alt]/[Option] while drawing, switching dynami-
cally between “edit mode” and “create mode”.
• Clicking and dragging with the Pencil tool in Line mode shows a line in the 
controller lane, and creates events with values aligned with this line.
This is the best way to draw linear controller ramps. If you press [Alt]/[Option], no new 
events are created – use this mode for modifying existing controller curves.
If you want to enter or ad-
just a single event, click 
once with the Pencil:
If you want to “paint a curve”, 
drag the Pencil (with the 
mouse button pressed):
When you move the pointer in the 
controller lane, the corresponding 
value is displayed in this field.
Converting a Controller curve to a ramp using 
the Line tool: 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 373
• The Parabola mode works in the same way, but aligns the values with a para-
bola curve instead, giving more “natural” curves and fades.
Note that the result depends on from which direction you draw the parabola:
• In Parabola mode you can use modifier keys to determine the shape of the pa-
rabola curve.
If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] the parabola curve will be reversed, if you press 
[Alt]+[Ctrl] (Win)/[Option]+ [Command] (Mac) while snap is activated you can change 
the position of the whole curve (in both cases the snap value for the positioning will be 
a quarter of the Quantize value). If you press [Shift], the exponent will be increased or 
decreased.
• For the above modes, the Length Quantize value on the toolbar deter-
mines the “density” of created controller curves (if Snap is activated).
For very smooth curves, you should use a small Length Quantize value or turn off Snap. 
However, please note that this creates a very large number of MIDI events, which can 
cause MIDI playback to “stutter” in some situations. A medium-low density is often suf-
ficient.
• The Sine, Triangle and Square modes create events with values aligned to 
continuous curves.
In these modes, the Quantize value determines the period of the curve (the length of 
one curve “cycle”) and the Length Quantize value determines the density of the events 
(the lower the Length Quantize note value, the smoother the curve). 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 374 The MIDI Editors
• In Sine, Triangle and Square mode you can also use modifier keys to determine 
the shape of the curve.
If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] you can change the phase of the beginning of the curve, 
if you press [Alt]+[Ctrl] (Win)/[Option]+ [Command] (Mac) while snap is activated you 
can change the position of the whole curve (in both cases the snap value for the posi-
tioning will be a quarter of the Quantize value).
• You can also set the curve period freely by holding down [Shift] when 
you insert events in Sine, Triangle or Square mode.
Activate Snap, [Shift]-click and drag to set the length of one period. The period length 
will be a multiple of the Quantize value.
• In Triangle and Square mode you can press [Shift]+[Ctrl]/[Command] to 
change the maximum position of the triangle curve (to create sawtooth 
curves) or the pulse of the square curve. As in other modes, you can press 
[Alt]/[Option] if you want to change the existing events rather than creating 
new ones. Again, the snap value for the positioning will be a quarter of the 
Quantize value. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 375
Moving and copying events
You can move or duplicate events in a controller lane, much like you 
can with notes:
1.Use the Arrow tool to select the events you want to cut or copy.
To select more than one event, [Shift]-click or drag a selection rectangle, according to 
the standard selection procedures.
2.Click and drag the events to move them.
If Snap is activated, this determines to which positions you can move the events (see 
page 404).
•If you hold down [Alt]/[Option] and drag, the events will be copied 
rather than moved.
❐If there already is an event of the same type at the exact same position, 
this will be replaced by the moved event.
❐Remember that a non-note event does not have a length – it is “valid” un-
til the next event (see page 357).
Using Cut, Copy and Paste
You can use the standard Cut, Copy and Paste functions on the Edit 
menu to move or copy events in the controller display:
1.Select the notes you want to cut or copy.
2.Select Cut or Copy from the Edit menu.
3.If you want to paste the events into another MIDI part, open that part 
in a Key Editor.
4.Position the project cursor where you want to paste the events.
5.Select Paste from the Edit menu.
The events on the Clipboard are added, starting at the project cursor position, maintain-
ing their relative positions. If a pasted event ends up at the same position as an existing 
event of the same type, the old event is replaced.  
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 376 The MIDI Editors
Deleting events in the controller display
You delete events by clicking with the Eraser tool or by selecting them 
and pressing [Backspace]. Please note:
•Deleting a controller event makes the last event before this valid up 
until the next event. It does not “zero” any Controller changes. See 
page 357.
•You can delete notes by deleting their velocity bars in the controller 
display.
Please be aware that if there is more than one note on the same position, there may 
still only be one velocity bar visible – make sure you delete only the desired notes!
Adding and Editing Poly Pressure events
Poly Pressure events are special, in that they “belong to” a specific 
note number (key). That is, each Poly Pressure event has two editable 
values: the note number and the amount of pressure. Therefore, when 
Poly Pressure is selected on the event Type pop-up menu, there are 
two value fields to the left of the controller display, one for the note 
number and one for the amount:
To add a new Poly Pressure event, proceed as follows:
1.Select Poly Pressure on the event type pop-up menu.
2.Set the note number by clicking on the keyboard display.
Note that this only works for the topmost lane. If you have selected “Poly Pressure“ for 
several controller lanes, you have to type in the desired note number directly in the lower 
value field to the left of each lane. The selected note number is displayed in the lower 
value field to the left of the controller display.
3.Use the Pencil tool to add a new event, just as when adding regular 
Controller events. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 377
To view and edit existing Poly Pressure events, proceed as follows:
1.Select Poly Pressure on the event type pop-up menu.
2.Click on the arrow button next to the note number field to the left of the 
controller lane.
A pop-up menu appears, listing all note numbers for which there already are Poly Pres-
sure events.
3.Select a note number from the pop-up menu.
The Poly Pressure events for the selected note number are shown in the controller 
lane.
4.Use the Pencil tool to edit the events as usual.
Press [Alt]/[Option] to edit existing events without adding any new ones.
•Poly Pressure events can also be added and edited in List Edit. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 378 The MIDI Editors
The List Editor – Overview
The toolbar
The toolbar contains several items that are the same as in the Key 
Editor (edit solo, Snap, Quantize settings, etc.). These are described 
earlier in this chapter. The following toolbar items are unique to the 
List Editor:
• The Insert pop-up menu is used when creating new events.
This is where you determine what type of event to add (see page 380).
• The Mask pop-up menu and Filter bar (F button) allow you to hide events from 
view, based on their type and other properties.
See page 382.
The List Editor has no info line (numerical editing is available in the list 
instead).
The list
This lists all events in the currently selected MIDI part, in the order 
(from top to bottom) they are played back. You can edit the event 
properties by using regular value editing, as described on page 380. 
						

							CUBASE LEThe MIDI Editors 19 – 379
The event display
This shows the events graphically. The vertical position of an event in 
the display corresponds to its entry in the list (i.e. to the playback or-
der), while the horizontal position corresponds to its actual position in 
the project. This is where you add new parts or events, drag to move 
them, etc.
The value display
This display shows the “value” of each event, allowing for easy view-
ing and graphical editing. Typically, the value shown is the “Data 2” or 
“Value 2” property (amounts for MIDI controller events, velocity for 
notes, etc.).
List Editor operations
Customizing the view
You can click and drag the divider between the list and the event dis-
play to make one area wider and the other narrower. Furthermore, the 
list can be customized in the following ways:
• You can change the order of the columns by dragging the column headings.
• You can resize columns by dragging the dividers between the column headings.
Setting the display format
Just like in the Project window, you set the display format (bars+beats, 
seconds, etc.) by right-clicking in the ruler and selecting an option from 
the pop-up menu. This setting affects both the ruler and all start, end 
and length values shown in the list.
Zooming
You can change the horizontal magnification in the event display by us-
ing the zoom slider below the display or the Magnification glass tool. 
						

							CUBASE LE19 – 380 The MIDI Editors
Adding events
To add a new event to the edited part, proceed as follows:
1.Use the Insert pop-up menu on the toolbar to select the event type.
2.Select the Pencil tool and click in the event display, at the desired 
position (relative to the ruler).
If you are creating note events, you can click and drag to set the length of the note.
The new event appears in the list and in the display. Its properties will 
be set to default values, but can easily be adjusted in the list.
Editing in the list
The list allows you to perform detailed numerical editing of the events’ 
properties. The columns have the following functionality:
Column Description
Type The event type. This cannot be changed.
Start The start position of the event, shown in the format selected for the ruler. 
Changing this is the same as moving the event. Note that moving the 
event past any other event in the list will re-sort the list (the list always 
shows the events in the order they are played back).
End This is only used for note events, allowing you to view and edit the end po-
sition of a note (thereby resizing it).
Length This is only used for note events. It shows the length of the note – chang-
ing this resizes the note and automatically changes the End value as well.